Birmingham Mayor William Bell (The Birmingham News / Joe Songer)
Birmingham Mayor William Bell will propose a $70 million development with a 303-room Westin Hotel and a retail, restaurant and entertainment complex next to the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

Bell said in an interview the project is a necessary first step before the city can consider moving forward with the development of a $530 million domed stadium. Officials now say the dome project -- which has already had a ceremonial groundbreaking -- will be delayed by at least a couple of years.

"It's about a $70 million project consisting of a Westin Hotel," Bell said. "It's going to be in conjunction with what we're now calling the Marketplace, which is the entertainment district concept, but we're going to be adding a little bit more to it and make it an integral part of the hotel promenade."

The 60,000-square-foot Marketplace would have room for as many as 20 restaurants, nightclubs, shops and other venues.

Bell said he was in the process of finalizing a proposal to take before the Birmingham City Council when The Birmingham News learned of the project. He said the groundwork for the project is nearly complete.

"We've been talking with the Westin representatives," Bell said. "They are in the process of finishing up their feasibility study and we are in the process of finishing up how we are going to finance it."

BJCC officials confirmed last month that they were in talks with a hotel operator, though they wouldn't identify it.

The plan is to take the current 14-percent lodging tax that runs for five years and extend the cycle to 30 years, providing a revenue stream to back the public bonds to be used in the project. BJCC Executive Director Jack Fields said some private bonds backed by revenue from the hotel and the Marketplace district will be used.

Specifics will be revealed when the proposals are brought before the BJCC Board of Directors and the City Council later this month.

"That will allow us to go forward and finance the entire project," Bell said, adding no additional city incentives will be necessary.

That's important because the city is addressing a budget shortfall that once estimated at as much as $77 million.

Under the plan, the Westin Hotel and Marketplace would be owned by the BJCC. The hotel would be operated by New York-based Starwood Hotels, which manages and operates the Birmingham Sheraton at the BJCC.

Joint-hotel plan

"What makes this a great project is it will be two hotels being run as one," Bell said. "Both the Sheraton and the Westin will share one back-office operation but the two hotels will have distinct personalities."

Bell and Fields said they believe this project has to be completed before advancing plans for a domed stadium to expand the BJCC. That plan has been in the works for a more than decade.

"My philosophy is do the small things well and then the larger things will fall into place," Bell said. "If we demonstrate that we can expand the capacity in the area from 650 (hotel) rooms to around 1,000 rooms, that will put us in a different category of attracting larger conferences and conventions."

Landing bigger conferences and conventions will help demonstrate that plans for a dome are less risky and could help the city attract other investors, either from the state, surrounding cities or the private sector, Bell said.

"When I came into office, my whole focus was let's do the possible and then wait on those things that are a little bit beyond our reach at this time," Bell said. "Unfortunately the public was given the impression that the city of Birmingham could go forward and build this facility on its own."

Bell said that approach is not practical because the city doesn't have the financial resources to tackle it. His predecessor, Larry Langford, insisted that the city could fund the project on its own.

Fields said added hotel space and the entertainment district have always been seen as critical elements in the dome push.

"We were never going to build that dome unless we had supporting development," Fields said.

He said he is confident the dome will be built, just not as quickly as had been hoped. Design work is already under way on the project. He added that the hotel and entertainment district project would deliver two of the three essential components of the long-delayed expansion push.

"The major component would just be delayed until the economic conditions return on an upswing and we can take another look at it then," Fields said. "Honestly, I think it will be in a lot better condition when we're ready to look at it because then we will have something almost finished or finished and being heavily used that shows what's capable."

Fields said the design for the hotel is still being completed, but it likely will stand 10 or 11 stories tall. He said having more than 900 rooms within walking distance of the BJCC would allow the complex to lure bigger meetings and host two smaller conferences at once.

"We will be a player where we never were a player before," he said.

Bell said construction will take between 18 months and two years after it starts.